On Mystic Towers

Of the early PC games I played, Mystic Towers remains one of my favorites still. Likely it is for the same reason some people still play Doom, or the first Unreal. Back in 1994, games really didn’t have the fancy processor power and graphics they have now. They had to rely on the graphics they had, and the mediocre sound they had, and decent gameplay if they wanted to impress their audience. To create an atmosphere back then was difficult, but like Doom, I think Mystic Towers pulled it off.

There are systems they had that won’t work so well in a roguelike without careful consideration. Because the game was in isometric 3D (tiles looked at from a corner) there were gameplay elements that won’t work from top-down, such as items being hidden (from the screen) by taller items in front of them. Because you could pick up items next to you rather than on top of them, sometimes items were off the map (such as a fireball spell in a fireplace). I have to ensure I have rules for that. Then of course, there is the levitate spell, which is probably going to be my biggest challenge for this game. In Mystic Towers, everything had a height. When walking around, you could go under some high objects, fit through doors, jump over low objects, and reach the floor to pick up flat items like coins. ect. By levitating, he raised himself up one tile (up to 4 with repeated casts). At one tile, you were off the floor, so tiles with effects were not triggered. At two tiles, the lowest monsters couldn’t attack you, and you can glide straight over short objects, but you can no longer reach the floor to pick things up that were on it. At heights 3 and 4, you could not fit through ground-level doors. Non flying monsters were easy to pick off, since they couldn’t touch you also couldn’t interact with much unless it was high up as well. If there was an item on a high shelf or on top of a pillar, or a high button, you could get to it, but since the levitate spell was fairly rare, you had to be smart about when to use it. Many of the high buttons had a crate nearby you could push over and jump onto to hit it.

Another interesting item is the attack spells. There were 5 spells, and the only difference was the name, graphic, and damage. The spells firef from you and went up or down first (if the monster was higher or lower than you), then straight along a path. This meant that a) The monster had time, and might move away from the line of fire or closer to you, and b) That items on the ground might block your shot, but you could shoot over items if the enemy would be hit.

Personally, I would love to see the attack spells have more of a strategy to them, not only doing higher or lower damage, but having other effects. Ice could slow an enemy down. Being strange demonic monsters, maybe one of them could speed up from ice. Lightning could arc, or move faster than a shot of sulfur for example. Overall, there is some creative room here.

The tough part will be the atmosphere. If you have never played DoomRL, you should. There is a game that captures the atmosphere of the game it emulates. I feel great when playing DoomRL, like it’s an actiony, shooty game. Good times. With MT, I’m going to try to get the creepy atmosphere going. It was mostly the sound, but it was always interesting to walk into a room and realize that it was very dark, and some unseen monster was already gnawing on you. I think I can pull that off.